You are too kind Chris! Thank you for reading — and commenting!

Isn’t that just the best part of traveling solo? I love getting adopted by a great group for a few days or weeks 🙂

I know! I too was amazed! I guess most of Brazil is more off-the-beaten path than I expected, outside of Rio and the major tourist draws.

Indeed it was — the perfect note to end on <3 Thank you, Jeri!

Hey Elizabeth! You’re right, Portuguese was a huge stumbling block for me. Living in Thailand, I have done loads of pantomiming and getting by with little-to-no shared language, and it has rarely bothered me beyond a passing flicker of frustration. Thai people really don’t expect anyone else to speak Thai and so there is kind of a nation-wide game of communication going on between locals and tourists at all times, and it’s generally very good natured and casual. But I found that in Brazil, it was harder to get anyone to even attempt to communicate — as soon as I apologetically spoke English, people quite often literally looked terrified and would walk away or totally ignored me. I felt invisible.

And of course, I have myself to blame for not knowing any of the local language. I’m NOT a natural language learner by any means; it is a huge struggle for me! When I was planning the trip and reading websites only in Portuguese, I was able to understand quite a bit of them thanks to my Spanish, which I think made me overconfident for the trip ahead. And I have fought SO SO SO hard to learn and retain the Spanish I have! But anyway, great hearing about your positive experience — it sounds awesome!

Thanks Chris! Did they love it as much as I did?

You’re lovely, Jeff! Thank you! I love sharing my travels here!